Crowd stops suspected gunman after two are shot at Folklife Festival

Two people were shot and wounded Saturday evening at Seattle Center when gunfire erupted during the Northwest Folklife Festival.

Police said the victims were a young woman shot in the leg and a man shot in the hand. Seattle officers arrested at least one man and recovered a handgun.

The shooting happened just before 6:40 p.m. near the north side of the fountain where a drum circle had formed, witnesses said.

"We were all hanging out and this guy tried to pistol whip another guy and the gun went off," said DeAnna Botello, who had gone to the festival with a group of six friends and relatives.

The gun fired at least once, witnesses said, the shot striking the woman in the thigh and the same shot apparently hitting the second victim's hand. Neither person was involved in the original melee.

The shot set off a panic.

"Then everybody ran," Botello said. "One poor little girl almost got run over."

Four people saw the suspected gunman running through the crowd, jumped him and held him until police arrived at what was by then a chaotic scene of screaming, fleeing people.

A band playing nearby, which had stopped when the gunfire erupted, picked up the music again, hoping to calm the crowd.

Seattle firefighters arrived to treat the wounded and officers handcuffed the suspected gunman, marching him through the throng of people. His face bloodied, the man was taunted by many in the crowd, some of them throwing trash at him.

One man got into the suspect's face, screaming, "This is a peaceful event!"

Botello, 25, said she and her friends were just upset the incident happened at all.

"I've been here every year since I was about 12, always in the same spot, and this is the first time anything like this has happened," she said.

The Northwest Folklife Festival is a three-day event that continues through Monday, featuring folk, ethnic and traditional performers. This is the 37th annual festival to be held at Seattle Center.

Botello predicted that at future festivals, safety precautions would be tighter, restrictions more severe, because of Saturday's violence.

"It's kind of ruining things for everyone who's not doing anything wrong," she said.